Song of the Morning – LCD Soundsystem “Someone Great”

February 18th, 2009

I’ve been really wanting/needing things with monotonous, driving beats lately. I want to listen and think and not-think all at once. A little bit of driving the thoughts out of my head, a little bit of letting the thoughts percolate peacefully.

This song fits that engage brain/don’t engage bill brain, and has these curiously sad and poignant lyrics as well. I only got into LCD Soundsystem within the last 6 months or so – and mostly for the much-livelier “Daft Punk is Playing at My House” which I love to death. They’re geeky plus you can dance to them, and that’s a winning combo for me. But then this quiet, relentless little song captured my attention on the way to work this morning.

LCD Soundsystem – Someone Great listen at last.fm

I wish that we could talk about it,
But there
that’s the problem.
With someone new I could have started,
Too late
for beginnings.
The little things that made me harassed,
Are gone
in a moment.
I miss the way we used to argue,
Locked
in your basement.

I wake up and the phone is ringing,
Surprised
as it’s early.
And that should be a perfect warning,
That something’s
a problem.
To tell the truth I saw it coming,
The way
you were breathing.
But nothing can prepare you for it,
The voice
on the other, end.

The worst is all the lovely weather,
I’m sad
it’s not raining.
The coffee isn’t even bitter,
Because
what’s the difference?
There’s all the work that needs to be done,
It’s late
for revision.
There’s all the time and all the planning,
And songs
to be finished.

And it keeps coming,
And it keeps coming,
And it keeps coming,
Till the day it stops
And it keeps coming,
Till the day it stops.

I wish that we could talk about it,
But there
that’s the problem.
With someone new I could have started,
Too late
for beginnings.
You’re smaller than my wife imagined,
Surprised
you were human.
There shouldn’t be this ring of silence,
But what
are the options?

When someone great is gone.

We’re safe, for the moment.
Saved,
For the moment